Magic and shamanism
Finland has one of the richest magic histories in the world. Unfortunately most of it has disappeared, since everything was passed down to other generations by word of mouth and not written. Books about it do exist though, but most information was collected a long time ago by people who traveled around Finland and talked to old locals who practiced these things.
This is a brief explanation of the magic in Finnish culture. There is still much more to talk about.
This is a brief explanation of the magic in Finnish culture. There is still much more to talk about.
Magic
Magic in the Finnish belief rely heavily on spirits called Haltija and an energy called väki.
These spirits and energies are all around you, in pretty much everything you see.
Their purpose is to protect and rule over a place or person/animal.
Some Haltija spirits are called something else depending on where they are, such as:
Luonto: A persons own guardian spirit, which was believed to be a dead ancestor. Every human had one, and if they didn't, they became depressed and ill. There were many tricks to get a luonto spirit back into the human.
The luonto helped you in physical, mental and even supernatural things.
Before doing a spell that required a lot of strength and energy, a shaman would first do a spell to raise the strength of his luonto.
The Finns worshipped the dead a lot, and asked for their help in many things. Shamans would do spiritual trips to the afterlife to seek help and knowledge.
The Finns worshipped the dead a lot, and asked for their help in many things. Shamans would do spiritual trips to the afterlife to seek help and knowledge.
Sauna/kotitonttu: The saunatonttu was a saunas own guardian spirit whereas the kotitonttu was your house's guardian.
Every spirit had their own natural location such as a forest or fire. If you angered the spirits, they would come out of their natural spot and harm you. This is how many illnesses and wounds were explained. The spirits of fire were always angry, so they burn and hurt you, but for example the spirits of water could harm you if you offended or angered them somehow. The water spirits anger was seen as a rash on your body or an illness that started around water.
Most spirits could also do good things ofcourse. You had to respect them and make offerings to them. Spells were also done that asked the spirits to help you with anything, fishing or hunting for example.
The purpose of spells was basically to return spirits back to where they belong. An illness or wound you got from woods were probably caused by the spirits of those woods, and those spirits were then stuck with you. To heal the illness or wound, you performed a spell that returned the spirits back into the woods they came from.
The opposite could be done aswell if you wanted to harm someone. You would perform a spell that took a spirit out of its natural location, and send it to the person you wish to harm. A good example are the spirits of death. A powerful shaman could go into a burial ground and perform a spell, taking some spirits with him, and then sending those spirits on another person who would then become ill and maybe even lose his mind or die. These spirits could also be sent to a barn to ruin someone cattle or a field of crops to destroy them.
The spirits of death and the spirits of dead ancestors are two different things, but I will get to that some other time.
Other methods to harm others could for example be stealing their luck or love with spells.
Luck and love were believed to be energies that every person had. You could steal or give these energies with different spells and tricks. It didn't matter what you looked like or how your personality was, if your love energy was strong, you would always get a partner. If your love energy was weak however, you wouldn't get a partner. This energy was called ''lempo/lempi''.
Most spirits could also do good things ofcourse. You had to respect them and make offerings to them. Spells were also done that asked the spirits to help you with anything, fishing or hunting for example.
Synty
Synty is the mythical birth of something. Everything had it's own creation story, and knowing the birth of something really helped in witchcraft. Ancient finns believed that you could control something if you told it how it was born, fire for example. Fire was born when the god Ukko struck the edge of the sky, and a spark fell into a lake in our world. This spark was eaten by a fish and the fish was eaten by a bigger fish, the bigger fish was then eaten by an even bigger fish. The big fish was then caught by Väinämöinen. The spark escaped out of the fish and lit the surrounding forests on fire. This is how fire was born. When doing witchcraft, a shaman would often read out the birth story of what ever he was attempting to cure/control.
Spells
Spells were in a Kalevala meter poem form, and were read out. The spells included magical and secret words that only the shaman knew, and they believed that if you give these words to someone else, the spell would lose its power. This might be why much of the history has disappeared for ever. Some spells were shorter, while many were very long and most of the times, you would have to do several spells in order to achieve your goal. An example would be:
1. A spell to make your luonto or väki stronger. (Väki explained in the next segment)
2. A spell to know where something came from. So a wound, you would need to know what caused that wound.
3. Once you know what caused the wound, you would read out a spell that tells the culprit to go back where it came from. It was believed that if you know the mythical birth of a spirit or thing, you could control it. So if it was metal that caused the wound, you would read out a spell that told the metal how it was born and therefor be able to control it. This was called a ''synty'' or birth in english. It was very important to know a things synty before attempting to control it.
Below is a spell against snakes. The spell tells the snake where it came from, and to bite a stump instead of a human. As you can see, it's a poem.
The opposite could be done aswell if you wanted to harm someone. You would perform a spell that took a spirit out of its natural location, and send it to the person you wish to harm. A good example are the spirits of death. A powerful shaman could go into a burial ground and perform a spell, taking some spirits with him, and then sending those spirits on another person who would then become ill and maybe even lose his mind or die. These spirits could also be sent to a barn to ruin someone cattle or a field of crops to destroy them.
The spirits of death and the spirits of dead ancestors are two different things, but I will get to that some other time.
Other methods to harm others could for example be stealing their luck or love with spells.
Luck and love were believed to be energies that every person had. You could steal or give these energies with different spells and tricks. It didn't matter what you looked like or how your personality was, if your love energy was strong, you would always get a partner. If your love energy was weak however, you wouldn't get a partner. This energy was called ''lempo/lempi''.
Väki
Väki is an energy that exists everywhere. Not to be confused with a group of spirits, which was also called väki, so the word has two meanings. An example would be ''metsän väki'' which roughly translates to ''forces of the forest''. Some very good counterparts for väki could be the Chinese energy called ''chi'' or Hawaiian ''mana''. It is an energy you use for spells and magic, and the more powerful väki you have, the more powerful spells you can do.
Väki is also all around you, and it was very common to harvest a place's väki with a spell before doing a more powerful spell. A place, item or person with a lot of energy was called ''väkevä'', translated to strong.
There were many ways to get more energy, and one of these can still be bought... From the local alcohol store. A strong, clear spirit (the alcohol) was called ''väkiviina'' which is pretty much just a very strong booze. This booze was believed to have a lot of magical energy, and shamans could drink this before performing a spell. Finns loved to drink back then, and it has not changed.
Other ways that I've encountered and tried are meditating or freezing water (Finns still like jump into frozen lakes after the sauna).
Shamanism
The Finnish shaman was called a ''tietäjä'' which roughly translates to ''one who knows'' or ''wise one''. It was pretty much what they did, they knew things. They had solutions to every problem that was present in those times and performed spells and witchcraft to get rid of the problems.
Their main purpose as I see it was to keep the cosmic balance in the world. They moved spirits back to where they belong, so the spirits couldn't hurt humans. In other words, they were mainly healers. They moved a spirit who hurt a human, from this human, back to where it belongs.
Shamans could also bring souls stuck on earth to the afterlife. Your soul became stuck on earth if you were brutally murdered, you had done something very wrong before you died or your body was not burried properly. (See the page about burials.)
Many people seeked their help to get luck, love, harm to someone, keep spirits and animals away and many other things. A shaman mainly did good things yes, but they also cursed and harmed others if you made him angry or someone asked him to do so.
A shaman went into a trance-like state, ''vaipua loveen'', in order to travel to Tuonela, which was the afterlife. In Tuonela he would seek guidance, spells and help from ancestors. It could be done naturally, but as in many cultures, I believe some also ate something to get into the trance.
A state called ''haltijoituminen'' (sorry non-finnish speakers) ment that his luonto spirit took over his body in order to perform more powerful spells or do stressful and heavy work. In this state, a person would become very excited and energetic, work faster, better and could do things he couldn't do in a normal state.
Not everyone could be a shaman. You were either born to be one or you had a near death experience which allowed you to see the dead. This person would then become an apprentice of a shaman, and learn from him to be one.
A shaman could use magical tools in his spells, and he kept them in a bag. Some of these tools and objects include animal bones, human bones, soil from a graveyard, bird feet, magical stones among other things. Some everyday objects could also be used in spells, such as a puukko. A puukko is a Finnish belt knife that everyone carried with them. It was pretty much the only tool you needed, and a handy weapon if you were attacked.
Everyone could do minor spells, and it was an everyday thing to do so. Minor spells include luck in fishing or hunting, and I would count offerings as minor spells or rituals. The more powerful spells however were only done by experienced shamans, and only shamans could travel to the afterlife without dying. It was still dangerous to do so, and many shamans have never returned.